Ocean County Man Sentenced For Federal Narcotics & Firearm Charges

Monday, March 31, 2025, 11:45 A.M. ET. 1 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

CAMDEN, NJ.- On Wednesday, a 38-year-old Toms River, New Jersey, man learned that he would be spending over a decade in federal prison after being sentenced for possessing cocaine and unlawfully possessing a handgun by a previously convicted felon in the spring of 2020.

     On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, Masta Redding, 38, of Toms River, New Jersey, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Karen M. Williams to 151 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for his previously entered guilty plea to federal drug and firearms violations.

     Redding previously appeared before Judge Williams in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, and pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Cocaine; and one count of being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm, Convicted Felon.

According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office

     According to U.S. Attorney John Giordano and charging documents filed with the District Court, on March 5, 2020, Redding possessed a quantity of cocaine on his person and in his home, which he intended to distribute. Redding, a convicted felon, also possessed a Jimenez Arms pistol loaded with six rounds of ammunition.

     During his earlier plea allocution, Redding admitted that sometime after he was arrested, he paid another individual for, and then provided to the government, an affidavit in which the other individual falsely claimed ownership of the cocaine and firearm in Redding’s residence.